


Love is the Last Ingredient

by ManifestMerlin



Series: Shance Support Week 2018 [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Apothecary!Pidge, Falling In Love, M/M, Magical Prosthetic, Mutual Pining, Witch!Lance, witch!Shiro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 12:52:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14165250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManifestMerlin/pseuds/ManifestMerlin
Summary: When Shiro has to go visit a new apothecary, he doesn't expect to fall for the blue eyed water witch manning the cashier.





	Love is the Last Ingredient

**Author's Note:**

> So this ended up being way longer then I intended which is why it took so long. Day 6 will be uploaded later tonight for real this time since it is way shorter. Since I am a bit more unsure of this one comments and critique are extra appreciated so please tell me if you see a mistake or something that doesn't make sense. I hope you enjoy!

Shiro’s arm was acting up again. As soon as he woke up he noticed when the prosthetic was more sluggish to respond, then it dropped his bowl when he went to get cereal making a mess all over his floor. The enchantments on the metal must have been wearing off. He would have to go get ingredients to reapply them and it had only been two days, what a great way to spend his saturday. It only got better when Shiro walked downtown and found out his usual place had moved two cities over according to a note left on the door of the abandoned store. Seeing as there was no other option Shiro decided to check his phone to see if there was any other apothecary in Arus which might have what he needed, after all he couldn’t ask Keith to get it for him since the last time he tried that Keith was arrested for arson over a price squabble and had to be bailed out. One entry caught his eye: a smaller yet highly rated store called ‘The Green Lion’ within walking distance of him. The store was described as a hole in the wall but the reviews all talked about how amazing the store’s inventory was supposedly housing everything from agrimony to saffron crocuses. When Shiro got there he could see that it definitely fit the hole in the wall criteria, it wasn’t a large building with all the walls made of dark wood and a sign above the door in a bright, rich green proudly proclaiming the store’s name to anyone who happened to be passing by. As he walked into the store a bell above him rang a high clear note. The inside was tables and shelves built with every different kind of wood imaginable and every surface covered with plants of every type flowers and herbs to bushes and miniature fruit trees, the store did a good job of living up to it’s reputation.

“Hi! Welcome to The Green Lion!” greeted a lanky young man with dark skin and blue eyes. “How can I help y-” he stopped upon actually looking at Shiro’s face.

“Yes?” Shiro asked.

“How can I help  _ you _ ? Sorry about that my tongue decided to stop working there.” The boy stuttered back.

“Oh. I had some ingredients I needed to get and my usual place switched locations.” Shiro replied as he walked up to the counter noting the boy’s name tag read Lance. 

“Well we should be able to help with that. What do you need?”

Oh this part was easy, Shiro could recite the ingredients for enchanting his arm in his sleep.

“Honeysuckle, thyme, silverfrond, yellow lady slippers, Juliet Rose, and Mandrake Root.”

Lance’s jaw dropped open and his eyes widened comically, “That’s… well-”

“Do you not have it all?” Shiro asked.

“No, no we have it all but are you sure you can buy it? That’s a lot of expensive ingredients I can’t just sell it off to any hack who wants to play potion master y’know. What do you need it all for anyways?”

“This.” Shiro replied as he held up his prosthetic with his flesh hand getting a strange look from Lance, but it wasn’t pity or disgust like most people, Shiro didn’t know what it was.

“Ah magical limb gotcha, still has to be pretty high functioning to need half of this stuff Mr...” Lance said as he came around the counter to grab the first three ingredients on Shiro’s list.

“Takashi Shirogane, but just call me Shiro” Shiro replied.

Lance seemed to freeze at that as he picked up the honeysuckle, his back was turned so Shiro couldn’t read his expression, “Well Shiro I’m going to go call in the back to grab the other things, too expensive to leave them in the front of the store. Oh, and you’ll need these.” Lance said as he handed him some earplugs.

“What do I need these for?” 

“So your ears don’t blow out when they grab the mandrake of course.” Lance said putting in his own pair, revealing a pair of sapphire earrings in the shape of water drops.

_ Water witch.  _ Shiro thought absentmindedly, although it should have been obvious seeing as he worked in an apothecary.

“You use fresh mandrake?” He asked incredulously.

“Well duh, my friend runs this place and she is one of the best plant witches I know, if there is only one thing she taught me its that you NEVER, NEVER use anything except fresh mandrake. Anything else and your spell won’t last.” Lance replied.

_ Well that explains why my visits to Honerva kept getting more frequent. _ Shiro thought bitterly.

“That reminds me, PIDGE WE’VE GOT A MANDRAKE, JULIET ROSE, AND YELLOW LADY SLIPPER!” Lance yelled.

“GOT IT!” came the sharp reply from somewhere in the back of the store.

Shiro put in the earplugs, not a second to soon since right afterward came a barely audible shrieking that was the telltale sound of a mandrake getting plucked from the ground before being abruptly cut off. A few moments later short girl, who he assumed was Pidge, came out holding a bag. She was dressed in an ankle length dark green dress tied with a dark brown sash and wore a green lion pendant which accented well with her short strawberry blonde hair. The only part of her attire which didn’t match were her large round glasses. She wordlessly handed the bag over to Lance who put the other items inside before she returned to the back of the store.

“Here you go, your total is $562.98.” Lance said as he typed a few numbers into the computer operated cash register.

“Here you go.” Shiro said as he handed over his card.

Lance swiped the card before handing it back with the bag of ingredients.

“Thank you very much.” Shiro called as he left the store.

“Have a nice day handsome!” Lance called back.

Shiro didn’t register the compliment until later when he got back to his apartment. He then definitely  _ did not  _ spend the next hour agonizing whether or not that was supposed to be friendly or flirtatious before actually performing the ritual to reactivate his arm.

*************

“Hunk i’m serious! It was really Takashi Shirogane! Actually! In the flesh!”

“Lance I get it I already said I believe you!” Came Hunk’s voice through the phone.

“THE Takashi Shirogane, best duelist and flier of the generation! He talked to ME!”

“Lance I get it, you can’t handle actually meeting your crush slash hero.” Hunk joked.

“Crush? What crush? Hunk are you sure you okay or did Shay’s crystal magic start seeping into your brain, I mean me with a crush? On Takashi Shirogane? You must be joking!” Lance said radiating panic even through the phone.

“Yeah sure let’s go with that bud, you called him handsome in a totally platonic bro way.”

“Hunk I’m serious!”

“Yeah sure Lance, anyways I have to go to work in an hour and you know i’m always busy.”

“Hunk I don’t have a crush on Shiro!”

“Bye Lance! Good luck with  _ Shiro _ !” Hunk sang before hanging up.

Lance stared down at his phone before throwing his head back and putting his hands on his face, “I am so screwed aren’t I?”

*************

“So you don’t know if he was flirting or not, and why does this matter?” Matt asked as he ate his sandwich.

“Wel-It- I just want to know.” Shiro stuttered putting down his soup spoon, The Yellow Lion really was the best place around.

“You definitely didn’t fall for the cute cashier of your new apothecary?” Matt teased.

“Yes!” Shiro said.

“Suuure.” Matt scoffed, “What’s the name of this place anyways, if they sell fresh mandrake I might wanna check it out.”

“Its ‘The Green Lion’.” Shiro replied.

Matt suddenly took on a devilish grin, “ _ Ooohhhhh. _ Is that so? Funny thing, that’s the store my sister owns and I may or not know the guy you’re talking about.”

“Katie goes by Pidge now?” Shiro asked.

“Wow that old nickname stuck? Anyways, Lance flirts almost as much as me.”

“So it was meaningless then.” Shiro sighed.

“Hey! I mean it! Lance usually flirts more than that though, weird.” Matt said as he finished his sandwich and got up. “I’ve gotta go now, good luck with that Shiro!”

“Matt good luck with what? Matt you’ve got the wrong idea, MATT WAIT!”

*************

Over the next few months Shiro got to know Lance a bit better over his weekly, rather than thrice weekly, visits, the ingredients at the Green Lion really were more potent. He learned that Lance’s best friend was the owner of The Yellow Lion, and that said friend was dating the owner of Balmera’s Crystals.

“Seriously?” Shiro asked, “My friend Allura goes there all the time whenever she needs any mineral ingredients!”

“Its a small world.” Lance shrugged giving Shiro a glimpse of his blinding smile. 

He learned that Lance was the middle child of five children, and apparently was proficient in his magic enough to change the tide.

“Wait really? Weather manipulation is one of the highest levels of magic preformable! That’s amazing!” Shiro exclaimed.

“Really? You think so?” Lance said looking down- that wasn’t a blush on his face was it?

“Of course! If you can do that then you could even be a professional duelist if you want!”

Every single time, Shiro fell a little bit further.

*************

This was torture, literal torture. Lance didn’t know what god he pissed off to have his long time crush start frequenting his workplace and get to have conversations with him but he didn’t know wether to be elated or furious. Shiro saying he had the potential to be a professional duelist was the last straw though.

“You really think so?” Lance asked.

“Definitely!” Shiro nodded his head enthusiastically.

“That’s really encouraging coming from you.” Lance said quietly.

“Me? Why me?” Shiro said looking confused.

“Well to be honest, you’ve always been kinda like my hero. I always used to hear about you on the news, ‘Takashi Shirogane: Best Duelist of his generation’.”

Shiro seemed caught off guard at that, “You know about that? That was years ago!”

“Well of course, imagine what was going through my head when you first walked into the store!”

“I’m guessing you want an autograph?” Shiro asked suddenly turning dejected.

“What? No!”

“Why not?” Shiro said raising an eyebrow.

“Do you want to give me one?” Lance asked.

“No one’s ever asked me that…” Shiro mumbled, “No not really, I don’t really like having to remember it.” He said as he clutched his prosthetic.

“Then that’s why I’m not asking for one.” Lance said as Pidge finally came out and handed him the ingredients.

“That’s… very kind of you.” Shiro said softly.

“No problem.” Lance replied as he rung him up, “Your total is-”

“$562.98,” Shiro finished before giving Lance his card and a smile that made him weak to his knees.

“R-right.” Lance said as he handed back the card after swiping it.

“Have a nice day!” Shiro said as he left the store.

“You too handsome!” Lance called back as always.

“Just ask him out already!” Pidge said.

“Pidge! You know I can’t do that!”

“Why not? You keep flirting with him, and I don’t think he’s going to make the first move. Its nauseating to watch you be so lovestruck!”

“I am not lovestruck!”

“Then you’re just normal in love!” Pidge stated, “To be honest I think you should just act on it already!”

He did not love Shiro, no way in hell. Sure maybe he was his hero, although less so as Lance got to know him as a real human being, and maybe he like the way Shiro smiled, and the way his grey eyes sparkled in the sunlight, and maybe he enjoyed how much Shiro was willing to talk to him about everything from their friends to the weather. Maybe Lance enjoyed the sputtering laughter Shiro gave after Lance described how Hunk had literally fallen into Shay’s arms on his way to ask her out before getting beaten to the punch by Shay herself but that didn’t mean anything did it?

“Lance!” Pidge said snapping her fingers in front of his face, “Stop daydreaming about Shiro!”

Lance blushed at being caught in the act.

_ I am so colossally screwed. _

Lance was in love with Takashi Shirogane, and there was nothing he could do about it.

*************

“I think I like Lance.” Shiro said into his phone.

“What gave you away?” Matt snorted.

“He asked me if I felt comfortable giving an autograph. I thought he would want one but he didn’t.”

“That’s what gave you away? Not you suddenly talking about how much you liked the color blue in every single conversation?” Matt said exasperatedly.

“No one's ever been that thoughtful.” Shiro said.

“What are you going to do about it?”

“Nothing? It’s not like I have a chance.”

“Oh for god's sake- Shiro this guy even admitted that you were his hero! What’s it going to take for you to ask him out?” Matt said.

“It isn’t happening Matthew.”

“You also said you didn’t have a crush on him.” Matt pointed out.

“So?” Shiro snapped, “I’ll talk to you later I have to go.

“Ingredients again?”

“Yup.”

*************

When Shiro got to The Green Lion he found that Lance was already there with a bag ready. 

“You already know the price.” Lance said.

“How did you-?” Shiro said.

“It’s been one week exactly since you last came in, so I decided I might as well get it ready for you.” Lance said with a smile.

“Thank you.” Shiro stuttered.

“Yup I grabbed all the ingredients myself just for you!”

“Even the mandrake?”

“I might have ringing in my ears from being so close even with earplugs but yes I did it.” Lance replied as he handed over the bag.

“Thank you.” Shiro lamely repeated.

“No problem handsome, have a nice day!” Lance said.

“You too.” Shiro replied as he walked out of the shop.

When Shiro got home to perform the enchantment something didn’t feel right. He performed the rite as usual by stewing all the ingredients in a pot and then pouring the liquid into the cavity made for it in the arm. But when he reattached the prosthetic the engravings which normally shone a harsh purple instead began to emit a soft blue light. The arm was working as usual so Shiro decided not to worry about it.

*************

“No Coran i’m serious, my arm has been powered for the last two weeks and it doesn’t show any sign of slowing down.” Shiro said.

“Are you sure my boy? Your arm might be one of the best but even it shouldn’t be able to go beyond nine days or so.” Coran’s voice came in through the speakers of his phone.

“I’m sure. I haven’t enchanted it for two weeks exactly.”

“Hmmm, you said it was glowing blue as well? There might be one explanation…” Coran trailed off.

“What is it?”

“Well it is well known that enchantments for a specific person can be made more potent and long lasting if the ingredients are made with love, also for that specific person. It takes real affection to work though which means it isn’t used by most commercial providers of ingredients. Anything fit the bill on that description?”

“Well not rea-” Shiro began before cutting himself off.

_ Yup I grabbed all the ingredients myself just for you! _

“Oh.”

_ I might have ringing in my ears from being so close even with earplugs but yes I did it. _

“OHHH.”

“Uh Shiro? Remembered anything?”

“Yeah I did Coran, nothing to worry about.”

“Well you’ll have to introduce me to this person sometime then.”

“Coran its no-”

“Excuse me Shiro a patient just came in. Hello there! Welcome to Altea Clinic!”

The phone hung up at that point. Shiro realized exactly what he had to do. By the time he ran into The Green Lion he was out of breath. Lance had been lying his head on the counter dejectedly before Shiro had opened the door, at which point he bolted upright with wide eyes and a grin on his face.

“Shiro! Haven’t seen you in a while!”

“Yeah, about that,” Shiro wheezed, “I haven’t been here in a while because my arm seems to not be turning off now.” He said as he held it up.

“Blue, nice color choice.” Lance said with a remarkably more somber look on his face, “Wouldn’t that only be possible with ingredients prepared with genuine love?”

“Yeah, that’s right.” Shiro said excitedly.

“Well, i’m happy for whoever gave you that then.” Lance said with a sad smile.

“What? No- Lance the last time I got ingredients it was from here, the time you got it for me ahead of time. I was wondering if-”

Lance went pale at that. “Wait Shiro- I can explain-”

Shiro put his hand up, “I was wondering if you were free this saturday?” 

“Umm… I don’t think so I have wor-”

“HE IS MOST DEFINITELY FREE ON SATURDAY!” Pidge’s voice interjected from the back.

“Nevermind I guess i’m free on saturday? Shiro, what is this about?” Lance said looking worried yet hopeful.

“I was wondering if you wanted to maybe go out for lunch?”

“Well yeah sure I guess I- oh OHHHHHH. Yes absolutely I would love to!” Lance said, having gone back to his cheerful self.

“Well then, I guess its a date.” Shiro said with a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Left on a bit of a cliffhanger but I had to end somewhere. If you want any background info, Hunk is an earth witch, Allura is a light witch, Keith is fire, Coran is healing, and Shay is crystal. I ended up writing a not insignificant part of this song to Black Magic by Little Mix and I just thought that was kinda ironic.


End file.
